Philips Golden Ears challenge
Apr 20, 2014 at 4:26 PM Post #212 of 331
I'm using my beyerdynamic dt990 pro and fiio e6 amp and I can't get past silver mp3 artifacts. They said look or tremolo effects or high-hats. Searched on google but didn't get much help. Any advice?

Hi, 
 
For me also, this was the hardest part, I'm using Sennheisser HD280 stock and a Sound Devices HX-3 amp. I could get it all the way to 112 kbps by just hearing the artifacts (the watery chirpy sounds in the background), but above 128 kbps I couldn't hear them anymore, even if I turned the volume up. Eventually I closed my eyes and really focused on the voice, not sure how to put this into words but I found the best quality by paying extreme attention to the "edges" of the words, there is a lot less definition in the compressed version, like the "edge" of the sound is blurry, the mid-bass blends blurrily into the noise floor at 128kbps, as opposed to the crisp definition in the higher quality reference. My guess is that it would have been much harder to spot at 160kbps. I wonder though, if the reference is a PCM wav or just another lossy compression (albeit at a higher bit rate)
 
I actually went through each level in about an hour, doing the basic level on an Ipad 4 with the hd280, had a little trouble with the bass extension, but everything became clear bass-wise when I plugged my headphone amp into the laptop (using the laptop's internal sound card), so I did the remaining 3 stages in this setup.
 
Apart from the mp3 tests, my headphones are really lacking at soundstage so stereo width gave me a bit of trouble and the timbre in the last section also required some learning.
 
Overall I found the tests entretaining and I feel like they will be of real use to me, I will send them to all my clients before we start mixing :)
 
About the reverberation part - I really hated that they stated that the reference was direct sound, with no reverberation. This is simply not true. The violin had a small-room reverberation to it most likely originating in the recording itself...  the double-bass as well (different kind of reverb actually, a larger room), and the accordion had a large reverb to it also. The only dry sound was the rythm guitar strum, which plays an edifying strum in at about a third of the song.
 
Apr 22, 2014 at 4:06 PM Post #214 of 331
all ready done
 

 
Apr 23, 2014 at 3:30 AM Post #215 of 331
Yay! Golden Ears! Man the frequency band section! I went back to that section just because it was the hardest especially if they were mid boosts cuts. I am going to keep retaking the test until I can get through that section without getting anything wrong once. Must train harder!
 
Apr 29, 2014 at 2:08 AM Post #216 of 331
Completed this test several months ago (before number 500) with cheap headphone Edifier H850 (50$) without amp. 
Gear' sound quality or resolution is not so much critical. Skill and feeling also are important for this test.  
  
 
May 5, 2014 at 2:12 PM Post #217 of 331
  Yay! Golden Ears! Man the frequency band section! I went back to that section just because it was the hardest especially if they were mid boosts cuts. I am going to keep retaking the test until I can get through that section without getting anything wrong once. Must train harder!

True that, that one is very hard.
 
I actually find the mp3 artifacts fairly easy, just completed it again (took 3-4 minutes). Up to 128 is easy. 128 can be recognised with a bit of effort if you focus hard on the vocals and their quality and naturalness, for me it helps closing my eyes.
 
Jun 22, 2014 at 2:18 PM Post #220 of 331
  Silver Ears!! Almost there haha

Yes? You rang?  
tongue_smile.gif

 
Jun 22, 2014 at 4:28 PM Post #221 of 331
  Yes? You rang?  
tongue_smile.gif

DAMN IT. From the time I posted that up to now, I'm stuck on frequency bands… I've rather mastered the boosts but the cuts still elude me. It's 4:30AM over here…
 
Jun 23, 2014 at 1:35 AM Post #222 of 331
Hi guys hehe 
 

 
I believe I'm the 850th
 
Jul 30, 2014 at 5:01 PM Post #225 of 331
I started this journey long ago. 
atsmile.gif
I completed the Bronze and Silver sections during a lunch break; there were some tough spots but nothing too frustrating.  The rig I used was pretty bare bones:
 
Foobar>M-Audio Transit at 24/44.1kHz>PIMETA w/OPA627 op-amps>ATH-M50
 
When I got to the Gold section I could not get through the frequency band section - the mid-high frequency cuts were particularly challenging.  I took a long break from the madness.
 
A few months later I fired up my home-office rig and gave it another shot: Benchmark DAC1-USB and Denon D7000s – what a difference.  There were still some struggles that made me want to try my Oppo BDP-105/Mjolnir/HD800 rig at times, but I got through it.
 
Overall I would say there is a point where as long as the equipment is sufficiently resolving, the rest is just patience and training (and hearing health).  There were times where I would be so close to passing the frequency test, but then I would miss 4 in a row and have to start at the beginning. One valuable thing I learned is that frequency cuts were usually more subtle than boosts and harder to detect.  That is something I had heard from pro engineers for EQing, but not something I’d experienced myself.  This was a fun exercise and something I would recommend to audio-nerds, music-lovers and musicians alike.
 

 

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